sales@essence-computing.co.uk

Apps
& Advice

APPS

I have sold over One Hundred and Forty thousand
Apps. That's sold not downloads.

People have paid for my Apps!

To put my sales into context that is easily in the top 1% of
developers and probably the top 1% of that.

There are tens of thousands of companies and developers out
there but very few can say they've sold that many Apps.

I have helped other companies develop their Apps from initial
stages through to App Store submission and acceptance.

ANALYSIS

Struggling to decide what to do? Stuck on a problem with your
code, design, testing or even requirements?

I have many years of experience of all facets of programming,
design, testing and requirements analysis.

Examples of my Apps

Some examples to back up my claims above.

All information from the UK App Store and was correct on the 3rd
September 2017.

Example 1

My best selling App (written many years ago and still selling)
is the Depth of Field Calculator App.

Keywords for the App Store: Depth of Field

Results: My App - Depth of Field Calculator is number 2 behind
SetMyCamera which is free (with some very expensive In App
purchases).

Update: I decide to check the US App store and
Depth of Field Calculator is 4th in that store.

My App also has In App purchases notably Exposure
Calculator, EXIF Manager and Depth of Field Variants.

Type in Exposure Calculator into the App Store and you will find
one of my other Apps - Exposure Calculator. This App
appears on the first page of App Store results.

Exposure Calculator is a stand-alone App by itself but it can
also be purchased as an In App from Depth of Field and vice versa -
exposure has an option to purchase depth of field.

So a user may find one of my Apps and then discover the others
via In App purchases.

This cross selling of Apps via In Apps increases my sales
significantly. The EXIF Manager is also a stand alone App but
just does not get many direct purchases. However it gets better
purchases via In App purchasing in both Focal and Exposure.

Overall, EXIF Manager has been sold as an In App 2.5 times more
than it has been downloaded as an App.

I've got a 5 star review from someone who has swapped from the
Free Drinkaware App to mine.

Other people have commented both in emails and in reviews that
my App is better because it just shows you the numbers and does not
preach to you.

Update: I decide to check the US App store and
Alcohol Units Calculator is 1st in that store. Yes, still
first! First in 2016 and still first in 2017.

Alcohol Units is my first App with an iWatch extension to allow
you to input a new drink without using you phone. The Watch
allows you to quickly and easily add a new drink for the day.

There is no App with an Apple Watch extension for this type of
App.

Hard to believe but my sales go up during the Christmas period
as people start wanting to track how much they are drinking and
also want an App to resolve disputes about how many units there
really are in a drink.

DESIGN

Let me help you with your design problems. Too many people
have read the design books, read all manner of blog posts and other
people's code and think they've found the magic formula that will
make things just work. Sadly, they are rarely right.

Over the years I have honed my design skills to focus on what
works not what looks and sounds sexy and up to
date.

Many of these new techniques have never been used in anger on a
complex system. Consequently, when used in the real world
system they do not work.

I can guide you towards what I believe is the correct way to
design Apps so they are easier to code, maintain and
test.

SERVICES

REQUIREMENTS

Get the requirements document wrong for your project and it is
doomed from the start. Let us help you craft a document that
is easy to understand and less prone to misleading assumptions.

Whatever anyone says about requirements and whether a good
definition is needed to design and code an App if you do not know
what you are aiming for except in the vaguest of terms then you are
doomed to design, code, test, design, code, test ad
infinitum.

DESIGN

The initial design of a product is essential. Without it
you may have a perfectly workable system that then needs major
reworking because it cannot now accomodate requirements that were
not initially considered.

If you do not do the initial design work to assess the
feasibility of the product then you may miss that one killer
problem that would have halted the product if you had known about
it.

PROGRAMMING

I have many years of programming experience.

I also have many years of debugging experience. I excel in
debugger other people's work to make it work.

TESTING

Tesing is hard but essential. Without testing App do not
perform as they should.

Most App stores now do some testing before your App is released
to the general public.

Without some testing you are very likely to fail even the basic
checks that all do.